Robinson continues to live out dream 20-plus years later — and more

Kerry Robinson grew up in St. Louis attending Hazelwood East High School, and he would watch St. Louis Cardinals games with a close friend. He dreamed of playing for the Cardinals one day. In 2001, a dream that could have seemed unlikely came to fruition.

You see, Robinson was drafted by the Cardinals in 1995, but in the 1998 expansion draft, he ended up with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. After a few MLB games with the Rays and a few with the Cincinnati Reds in 1999, he found himself back in St. Louis in 2001 competing for a spot on the MLB roster.

After a short stint in Triple-A with the Memphis Redbirds, Robinson was sitting in the same seats he and his friend would sit in back when they were kids. But he wasn’t a fan this time around — he was soaking in the moment right before taking part in batting practice.

“Before batting practice, the first day I was there, I sat in those seats for like 20 minutes. I was like, ‘Man, I dreamed of being here. Now I have to go make the most of it,'” Robinson said during a recent visit to Joplin with the Cardinals Caravan.

Those seats were directly behind home plate. He said he and his friend would buy the cheap tickets up at the top of the stadium but would move down to seats behind home that always seemed to be open every night they were there. He recalled watching his favorite Cardinals outfielder growing up, Ray Lankford.

He got three seasons at the pro level with St. Louis and played in more than 100 games each year before being traded in 2004 to the San Diego Padres. He played 80 games out west, and in 2005, he didn’t play in the big leagues. In 2006, he played part of the season for the Kansas City Royals before completing his career.

The 32-year-old retired. Five years later, he stepped into a new role in the Cardinals organization, and today, he’s starting his 16th year as a pro scout.

“I wanted to stick around and be a part of baseball as long as I could, and they’ve had me all these years. Hopefully, I’ve contributed something over all those years,” Robinson said.

His first year was 2011, the year the Cardinals won the World Series with David Freese’s home run in Game 6 against the Texas Rangers. Robinson said he got to contribute that year by recommending a signing of Rafael Furcal.

“At first, Mo (general manager John Mozeliak) said that wasn’t an option. A week and a half later, he trades for him,” Robinson said.

Robinson also recalled the memorable “happy flight” celebrations from Furcal after wins. Furcal would celebrate wins before a trip to a new city by chanting, “Happy flight, happy flight, happy flight.”

Now 52, Robinson is still scouting talent and making suggestions to try and build up another World Series-contending team just like the 2011 team that won it and the 2013 team that lost in the World Series.

He sees a team full of players similar to the place he was once in.

“These young players have an ability to make a name for themselves. The fans are starving for guys that they can cling to and say ‘That’s my guy,’” Robinson said. “We have a lot of talent coming up through the organization, and it does look like we’re starting over, but there’s a lot of talent coming through this club.”

Robinson talked highly of Victor Scott and Masyn Winn as young leaders on this Cardinals team. He noted this about JJ Wetherholt: “He’s a pure hitter. He’s going to be fun to watch over the next decade."

Robinson's journey

Robinson remembers trying to prove himself to the Cardinals in 1997. His manager, Tony La Russa, told him he had a shot. With the way he was producing at the minor league level after a few seasons in the organization, Robinson says that La Russa told him if that production continued, he’d be helping the MLB team out one day.

But the next year is when Robinson ended up in Tampa Bay.

Returning to La Russa’s squad in 2001, the manager again told him he’d be helping out. But this time, La Russa said it would be later that year. Sure enough, during the Redbirds’ road trip in Tacoma, Washington, there was a call on the phone. His roommate picked up.

“He said Mo (general manager John Mozeliak) was on the phone. I knew that was a good sign,” Robinson said. “Mo says: ‘Hey, man, we’re going to bring you back to St. Louis so you can play with your childhood team. The first phone call I made after that was to my mom.”

Robinson told her, "Mom, I’m coming home."

“What, you quit baseball?” she asked.

“No, I’m coming home to play for the Cardinals,” Robinson told her.

“The St. Louis Cardinals?” she asked, still stunned.

“Yes, I’m going to play for the big league team,” Robinson assured her.

La Russa was the first to give him that extended opportunity at the pro level. He got those three seasons and one with the Padres. Those years taught him something about pro baseball.

“It’s easier to get there than it is to stay. A lot of guys fail, in my opinion, because they’re scared to have success,” Robinson said. “On the downside, the outfield was Albert Pujols, Jim Edmonds and J.D. Drew. If you’re a St. Louis Cardinals fan, like I was, you don’t want to see Kerry Robinson playing over any of those guys. Nor was I as talented as any of those guys. … The blessing was I got to play in the big leagues. The little bit of a curse was I had three — it might be one of the best outfields of all time.”

Mike Mulholland via Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — Scottie Scheffler’s run is still alive, barely.

Scheffler fought back all the way back from dead last on the leaderboard on Friday morning to make the cut on the number at the midway point of the Genesis Invitational. After wrapping up his weather-delayed opening round in the morning, Scheffler posted a 3-under 68 in the second round to get to even-par for the week.

It took a 7-footer that Scheffler just narrowly snuck in for par on the final hole to keep him safe. Scheffler immediately erupted with a big fist pump after it fell, and then slowly walked over to high-five his caddie in what was perhaps the most emotion he showed all day.

“I tried to make a mess of a pretty basic chip there on 18. Caught it a little thin and just dug in, so it was nice to be able to hole a putt and get another two cracks at the course,” he said. “I started the day not where I wanted to, but yeah, battled and it looks like I get another couple rounds to see what I can do.”

That final putt was just enough to get him through to the weekend on the number, giving him his 68th consecutive made cut. That’s the longest active streak on the PGA Tour, something Scheffler’s been building since late 2022. It’s by far the biggest streak in the league, too, after Xander Schauffele’s 72-event cut streak was snapped last month. Harris English is the next closest with 22 straight made cuts.

By comparison, Tiger Woods holds the all-time record with 142 consecutive cuts made from 1998-2005.

Scheffler’s last missed cut was at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in August 2022. Since then, Scheffler has won 16 times on Tour, including at three major championships, and recorded 45 top-five finishes. He entered this week having finished no worse than T4 in his three starts this season, too, and he built up a ridiculous lead in the Official World Golf Rankings. Scheffler, who has been No. 1 since mid-2023, is nearly 300,000 points ahead of world No. 2 Rory McIlroy.

While he’s been historically great in recent years, Scheffler has struggled so far this week at Riviera Country Club. He was 5-over for the day without a single birdie when play was suspended on Thursday night, which forced him to finish eight holes early on Friday morning. Scheffler got two back early to wrap his 3-over 74, and then he made three straight birdies at the turn of his second round to get right into the mix after yet another rough start to his round.

But finally, it was a birdie save at the short par-5 17th that did it. Scheffler went up-and-down from the bunker to get to even par for the first time all day.

“[I was] very aware,” Scheffler said of the cutline. “I mean, I pretty much knew I had to get to at least even par with the way the conditions were.”

Even though Scheffler has managed to finish inside the top four in each of his last two starts, he’s had to fight back after slow starts — something that’s continued again this week in Los Angeles. He started the WM Phoenix Open 2-over before finishing T3, and was at even par last week at Pebble Beach before his T4 finish.

Scheffler was 12 shots back of leader Marco Penge when he hit the clubhouse, so he has a long way to go to even get within striking distance of the lead. But if anyone has figured out how to pull that feat off on Tour time and again, it’s Scheffler.

“This place and I have like a weird relationship,” Scheffler said. “I feel like I can play so well out here and I just haven’t yet.”

In a game that saw 13 lead changes, the Missouri Southern State University men’s basketball team used a strong second-half performance Thursday night to come out on top with a 64-60 win over Fort Hays State University at Robert Ellis Young Gymnasium.

Fort Hays (17-9, 9-8) jumped out to a 7-0 lead off a jumper by JuJu Ramirez, a trey by Kyle Grill and a Dan Mukuna layup.

Southern (15-10, 9-7) stopped the bleeding with a Tyrone Wright score in the paint, but Hays responded with a Lucas Hammeke bucket to push the lead back to 7 points at 9-2 with 16:27 left in the half. The lead grew to 9 points, courtesy of a Blake Danitschek score in the paint.

The Lions battled back to within a score at 14-12 off a Hunter Fitch trey from the left side at the 12:43 mark and tied the game at 14 with a Fitch putback of his own shot.

The Tigers got their lead back to 6 points at 21-15 off a Grill trey with 8:53 left. Each team scored 9 points the remainder of the half as Fort Hays took a 30-24 lead into the break.

Lion guard Isaiah Atwater talked after the game about MSSU's ability to regroup for the second half.

“We just knew that our shots would fall eventually,” Atwater said. “We worked too hard to miss that many shots. We shot like 25% in the first half. We knew it had to come around and that it would have to start on the defensive end so we could get out and create some easy buckets, and that’s what we did.”

MSSU head coach Sam McMahon also talked about shots not falling in the first half and how Southern was able to adjust.

“That’s a testament to Fort Hays’ defense,” McMahon said of the first half. “They are one of the best defensive teams in the country and obviously in the MIAA, so we knew it was going to be a dogfight. We knew it was going to be like going to the dentist — no one wants to go to the dentist. Their physicality and toughness around the rim kind of stunned us at first. We weren’t getting great looks and kind of got used to it and had a really great second half offensively and were making the right reads on defense.”

Trailing 35-29, Southern got 7 straight points from Colin Ruffin to close the gap to 37-36 with 14:53 left in the game.

Hays took the lead back with a Jahvari jumper, but the Lions answered with an Atwater trey to go up 41-39 with 12:43 remaining.

Martino tied the game at 41-all and a pair of Mukuna free throws gave Fort Hays a 44-41 lead. Southern regained the lead at 45-44 after a Jaden Taylor jumper and a Ruffin lay up at the 10:33 mark.

The Tigers took the lead back after a Muhamed Kante score in the paint and a Ramirez bucket that made it 48-45 with 9:42 left.

A Wright layup and an Atwater 3-pointer put the Lions up 50-48 with 7:46 left. Several ties and lead changes later, the Tigers earned their last lead of the game with 2:45 left off a Mukuna free throw that made it 60-59.

Tyrone Wright tied the game at 60 with a free throw, and Taylor and Atwater both sank shots to secure the 64-60 win.

Taylor led the Lions with 14 points. Atwater netted 13 points and went 3 for 4 from behind the arc. Fitch tallied 12 points, and Wright finished with 10.

Grill led the Tigers with 15 points, and Kante finished with 13.

The Lions wrap up the home portion of their regular season schedule with senior day at 3:30 p.m. Saturday against the University of Nebraska-Kearney.

“We know that every game matters at this point,” Atwater said. “That was a great opponent and a good win to have."

The win put Southern in a three-way tie for fifth place in the MIAA with Missouri Western State University and Pittsburg State University. The top 10 teams in the MIAA qualify for the conference tournament.